BlackBerry Storm now available on Verizon

by Thomas Ricker, posted Nov 21st 2008 at 4:11AM

You've read the review, now Verizon's BlackBerry Storm is available for purchase for $200 on two-year contract. Really, what's left to say -- you're either ready to pull the trigger or not.

[Thanks, JR]

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, Verizon Wireless, EV-DO, CDMA

Tags: available, blackberry storm, BlackberryStorm, breaking news, BreakingNews, rim, storm, verizon

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Tito @ Nov 21st 2008 6:02AM

...and with SIM Card support, this could easily find its way over to T-Mobile ot AT&T if you're the adventurous type... although whether those carriers would have the appropriate servicebooks to access data would remain to be seen

Neutral

Ben @ Nov 21st 2008 9:35AM

I had hoped and hoped that I would like this phone despite the negative reviews. I went into a Verizon store when it opened. Firstly, they didn't have any phones. Apparently they were expecting a shipment 'sometime' today and we could wait if we wanted. No Thanks. They did have 3 storms that you could play with. So I played with one, and it was so disappointing. The clicking screen was pretty cool but the general text entry experience was poor ( I actually would prefer the LG Dare's virtual keyboard to this). Generally the touch screen just wasn't very easy to use.

Neutral

Jake @ Nov 21st 2008 9:38AM

Does any one know how much this costs if you are current Verizon customer, and are NOT eligible for the upgrade? Thanks!

Neutral

Ray @ Nov 21st 2008 12:08PM

$500

Neutral

derek @ Nov 21st 2008 9:46AM

just bought the storm this morning. i was first in line. and this is completely what i expected. RIM did a good job.

Neutral

peter @ Nov 21st 2008 9:53AM

went to the store to try it out....utterly and completely disappointed....not even close to the feel of an iphone.
browser was beyond bad...pathetic actually.
sticking with my old fashion clamshell.

Neutral

Ryan @ Nov 21st 2008 10:18AM

Went to the Verizon store this morning at 8:56am and they were already sold out...I wound up buying one and having it Fedex'd to my house tomorrow before 12 noon. I've been rocking a treo 700w for the past 2 yrs and this phone or any phone for that matter should feel amazing to me after having this zach morris brick pda.

Neutral

Ed @ Nov 21st 2008 10:23AM

Very saddened by the reviews of yesterday esp with so many possitive things said over the last month with those that got to play with it first. Guess it's back to the possibility of getting the iPhone. :(

Neutral

Bill JS @ Nov 21st 2008 10:28AM

Same here; I like the iPhone but hate AT&T coverage/service. I like the Storm except for the clicking screen, lack of wi-fi and slow UI. There's never a perfect product.

Neutral

John @ Nov 21st 2008 11:55AM

Went down to my local Big Red Store yesterday to get the skinny on the lanch and was lucky enough to play with the store demo for 20 min....I was pretty dissapointed. The "sure type" was anything but. It felt like 2 pieces of glass with bubble wrap sandwiched in between. No shock, but touch screens aren't perfect and never will be.....even you iPhone fanatics have to agree with that. Kinda bumbed it only comes with 1 GB of onbaord memory, only a 3.1 MPG camera and no WiFi??....come on Big Red thats disapointing. While I was there I also got to play with the Samsung Omnia and WOW!!!!!! Thinner, lighter, 5.0 MPG camera, 8 Gb on board + expansion slopt, FM radio, widgets, complete e-mail integration with WinMo 6.1 (just as good as BB) WIFI!!!!!!, TV outs and the touch screen is really nice, not to mention this really really cool "optical mouse". You just glide your thumb over this black pad at the bottom and the mouse moves around the screen...you can also click on objects in the screen with the mouse. The sales rep told me it should be available some time next week and that most of the sales staff plans on going with the Omnia for their personal VZW consession lines. I think I might have changed my mind....I'll probably wait a few weeks to let the winner be declared

Neutral

Ari @ Nov 21st 2008 12:50PM

only problem is Omnia pricing will probably be much higher. They cut the Storm down real low to bring people in. Theyre still selling the HTC Mogul for like $350 which is a joke, plus Touch Pro will be $350 also with 2 new yr, so Omnia i can assume will be also.

Neutral

10man @ Nov 21st 2008 2:11PM

Tried to get a Storm today following all the delays. Got to the verizion store this morning and they were sold out all ready. Played with their demo phone while waiting in line for 1 hour. All I can say, IT'S NO IPHONE for sure, but the best verizion will ever have since they blew it on the iphone on there first time around. They have blown it again and again now over 1 year later. Aren't big companies wonderful ! The Nashville store only received 20 storms, but they would be glad to take my order for a storm. BS! I'm tired of messing with verizon. Im finally going to get the iphone on my way home.

10man

Neutral

The D Train @ Nov 21st 2008 2:11PM

Just be advised that to order the storm over the phone in care, due to system slow downs is taking upwards of 25minutes for us to process a single order. Also please be advised that vzw.com is experiencing unknown slow downs resulting in upwards of 15minutes to process an order online on the website. Thank you.

Neutral

Joe @ Nov 21st 2008 2:46PM

Met with an exec of #1 brand in the world for dinner and he was a happy user of old BB 8800, very dissapointed owner of an iPhone (freezing browser, slow to start, dropping calls, not sure what else), and dissapointed that RIM would even release a touch screen product and mess with its reputation of steller business performance device. Go figer. But those need communication for personal of business success, pick a tool that gets them there.

Neutral

Rick @ Nov 21st 2008 2:57PM

anyone know if the GPS on the storm is "not-crippled" (does it work with 3rd party applications?)

Neutral

The D Train @ Nov 21st 2008 3:34PM

If you have not ordered your storm yet today, we are now being told that all orders placed after 2pm est are not going to be shipped until december 5th, please bare this in mind if you call us to order, as we cannot make any exceptions to this time frame.

Neutral

Andrew @ Nov 22nd 2008 9:48AM

So what would be the best way to get it ASAP? Internet? Phone? or going to the store everyday untill they get them in stock?

Neutral

PC-ASSIST @ Nov 24th 2008 2:12AM

I bought the Storm Saturday.

I went to return it today. I have had a 7100t about three years ago, and if it was a touch screen I would still be using it today.

Problems in order:

1) Serious lag between portrait and landscape - sometimes greater than 10 seconds.
2) Editing text in a field is impossible unless your fingers are heated stylus points and see-through. If you try to edit in a text field, like in the crappy browser, if you follow directions, the highlight turns into a box. Now you are supposed to swipe left to move it. Instead, the entire field goes left.
3) Click on a page or interaction button on a page to accept or do somthing and it regularly zooms in instead.
4) It can take up to 15 presses on the screen before the snooze button even thinks that it is being pressed.
5) The least intuitive phone I have ever tried, and I thought that Windows Mobile was bad. Try finding bluetooth if you are new to the Blackberry's. In setup, there is a bluetooth routine, but instead of guiding you to the way to turn it on, it just tells you that it is disabled. It took me a bit before I finally pressed one of the real buttons on the phone to get the menu that had the "turn bluetooth on" portion.
6) Entering text is absolutely difficult. The accuracy of the screen is about where a BETA test unit would be. I press on one key and get something else, only having to start the whole dang routine over to get what I need. How wasteful is that?
7) Try finding the "-" in portrait and then in landscape modes. In one mode it is on the Numeric and the other it is on Symbol. this kind of inconsistencies tells me that they have not really field tested the unit. This applies to many of the other common symbols.
8) There are no direction keys where you need it most: editing text. They do show up in going up and down the list of emails.
9) No flash.
10) No pdf viewer.
11) Random duplicates after using the wizard to move data from my Mogul.
12) Fatal Error when using the website (RIM's) to update and check for new software. Without Fail.
13) Bluetooth stack is poor when connected to a Jawbone that works perfectly fine with three other phones. Lots of static.
14) Even when the power is off, the phone will beep if accidentally pressed. I tried keeping the settings on for the beep so I would have audible confirmation when pressing the whacko screen.
15) Phone is unusable when connected to the computer.
16) Total inconsistencies with software. In one application, the accept key is buried in the menu key versus having to scroll 10 times to get to the bottom where the accept key usually is.
17) POSITIVE: The Blackberry syncing is far superior to Activesync, which never fails to produce error messages that only someone in another parallel dimension could figure out how to solve.
18) It was a great education on what happens when you rush something out the door.
19) Some of this stuff will be natural to regular users of the Blackberrys. But how would you market this to a non-initated market share to compete with an iPhone?
20) Even with the poor backbone of Sprint, my mogul is easier and more intuitive to use.

Neutral

Geoff @ Nov 24th 2008 12:28PM

Went to VZW this afternoon at lunch and wow. All i can say is that the OS is terrible. Looking through the setup I found the DEMO(!) units to have to old .65 software running. I asked a rep why they had the old software and she said it's a simple over the air download to get the new OS, so i asked why they hadn't upgraded she said "because we're lazy".

Switching from Portrait to Landscape took at least 3-5 seconds. At one point the phone even froze when switching between.

The browser is difficult to maneuver around though the connection was very fast.

The BabylonAD trailer was crystal clear and the speaker very loud.

Dissapointing overall. The menus, everything were just so slow and unresponsive. Hopefully the software updates will bring this phone back to where it should have been on release.

Looks like its time to cancel and move over the the IPhone. *Sigh*

Neutral

dave428 @ Nov 29th 2008 10:15PM

All of the above comments have made my decision easy. Sort of. I have a Treo 700p and want to upgrade. Don't need to though. The Storm was the only other phone that can perform the apps in my business (although not until April). After the above comments and ones on a different blog I realize that I should wait until Palm comes out with a CDMA version of the Treo Pro. Like the Iphone the Storm sounds like it is more of a play toy instead of a business machine. The whole heat sensitive screen issue and clicking thing will not work for me. My business partner just got a Storm on Friday and already is having issues with the touch screen. She has long fingernails and used to using them on her Treo. I forget that these things have become more of a social toy than a business tool. And that sucks because I like to play now and then too.

Neutral

ALex @ Dec 2nd 2008 4:01PM

Storm Delays? Unheard of --- get it...

Neutral

TGlass @ Dec 9th 2008 9:59PM

i am with verizon and really like them so no iphone for me :( what i would like to know is if the storm would work for me, i dont run a buisness or anything i just like the phone and and anything would be better than my chocolate V1, any opinins on weather or not to go with the storm or pick another phone?

Neutral

giglemagnet @ Dec 18th 2008 1:15AM

i just received the storm this afternoon and i will be calling fed ex in the morning to come pick it up.... i have medium finger nails and chunky fingertips... i should sue vzw,,... lmao..... yeah im sure some of you have some pretty funny comments about this one ....but suck it!!! lol

this phone isnt made for everyone.... im returning to my treo 700w.....works like a dream....

Neutral

gto @ Jan 16th 2009 6:11PM

you guys have to remember that this is a brand new phone and they were trying to get it out before christmas so yes there are bugs but they are all software and will be fixed in a few weeks. Also the iphone had tons of bugs when they first released it and they had a software update that day so don't judge based on the first week of release.